On the month they were up 0.63 percent, slightly below expectations of a 0.7 percent rise.

In the year-ending November, 19 of the 20 cities included in the index saw home prices rise. Just New York reported a fall in prices. On a monthly basis however the picture wasn't as clean, with just 10 cities seeing home prices rise.

"Winter is usually a weak period for housing which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compared to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer," said David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Here's a look a the trajectory of 20-city home price index since 2001:

Millan Mulraine at TD Securities writes that "the sustained improvement in home prices has become central to the recent recovery in household wealth, with the $1.3 trillion increase in households' home equity since Q4 2011, accounting for over one-third of the $4.5 trillion increase in household net worth over the same period."